over
and over again that they approved of the principle that sales should be
through one channel, but they themselves alone among the big producers
in the Union and outside violate this principle. Their policy is that
of the big stick, short-sighted and unbusinesslike. In these difficult
times you cannot carry on business if you do not know what your
competitor, who should be your friend and not your opponent, is going
to do. I cannot imagine how anyone could refuse so reasonable an offer
and I very much doubt whether the Hon. the Minister ever subscribed [sic: described?]
it to his colleagues in the Cabinet. As even in these difficult times
the Government was not prepared to give us so much as an indication of
what their intentions were, not even a verbal intimation, we had no
option but to write to the Government withdrawing our offer, and saying
that while we would keep going as long as possible we, in turn, must be
free to act as we liked in terms of our agreement of July last. This
agreement was for the period ending 30 June of this year, and after
that date, since no further arrangement has been made with the
Government, we revert to the terms of the original contract. In spite
of all disappointments we were then hoping that better counsels might
prevail with the Government, and that the diamond trade would improve,
so that it would not be necessary for us to close down, at any rate
before July. For safety's sake, however, since our special arrangement
with the Government terminated at the end of June, we gave the
Government six months' formal notice so as not to be penalized should
we be forced to close down after the termination of our present
arrangement with the Government.
He
was not, however, content merely to assail the Government's handling of
the actual negotiations with the producers: there were fundamental
issues which transcended such merely tactical errors. The Government,
in his view, were too ready to subordinate the old-established and
permanent centres of diamond production to the State diggings in
Namaqualand; they were, furthermore, prepared to sacrifice the world
market for diamonds for the purpose of encouraging the South African
cutting industry, though, by their own admission, the old-established
producers and the Diamond Corporation had done their best to assist the
nascent industry:
The
Hon. the Minister must not forget, however, that the cutting industry,
in his own words, is to be on sound economic lines, and this would not
be the case if in order to help this secondary industry the Minister
were to sacrifice the interests of the primary industry—the production
of diamonds. If in order to help the South African diamond cutters,
production is unduly increased, or the policy of sales through one
channel endangered, or the South African cutters given any unreasonable
advantage over the European cutters, it can only end in disaster to the
whole industry. The basis of the
